I am a 41 year old woman.I am petite ( 5'4'. 105 lbs), and am physically active. Over the past 2 years, I have had severe problems with my period, including very heavy bleeding (in fact the first 2 days of my period, I would have to change my tampon every 20 minutes. And that was super plus tampons). My period would last about 14-17 days depending on the month. I quit taking birth control pills because I thought that was the problem. After some time, my periods became less heavy, and shorter. Well , now I am experiencing long heavy periods again, although not as bad a they were, and even have bleeding between periods. I have had a couple of episodes where I would all of a sudden experience excrucitating pain in my lower abdomen area which would cause me to be nauseated and cause me to tremble and sweat. It almost felt as if if were in labor having a baby. These episodes were between menstral cycles and would cause me to bleed. I have gone to the doctor, and they had told me they were fibroid tumors. I actually had one the size of a 12 week old fetus. The doctor also told me that my uterus is tilted back, whether or not that has anything to do with what I am experiencing. I have been reading about endometriosis, and it seems I have similar symptoms for that . Does anyone out there have or have had similar symptoms? If so, is there anything that can help ease the symptoms besides having to get a hystercomy? I would appreciate any advice.